Attitude of Gratitude

I've heard it said that a person cannot hold an angry thought and a thankful thought in their mind at the same time.

When you think about that, it can be very powerful. Sometimes it can be very easy to get caught up in a frustrating situation and lose perspective on what is truly important to us. We might get sucked into some juicy gossip, but for some reason feel pretty crappy about partaking in it after the fact. We may have just had a bad day at work or were ticked off because our kids weren't listening or the dog chewed up the furniture again.

Now, I'm not saying we need to always suppress feelings of frustration or even anger or especially sadness. On the contrary, it is important to let ourselves feel those emotions. But after an appropriate amount of time (and that time varies based on the situation), we need to turn it around and move forward. One of the most important and helpful ways to do this is through a practice of gratitude.

Since restarting this blog, I've been following my own self-directed cleanse, not only with food but with spiritual and mind-benefiting practices. One thing I've been doing is writing down five things I am grateful for every day. I've done this sporadically in the past and found that it has really helped me focus on what was really good about the really bad days or what was utterly amazing about the awesome days. And I can't even believe how much this practice improves my state of mind! For example, there was a day last week when I was getting ready to go to bed and I couldn't get this one silly yet frustrating thing out of my head. I was washing my face and thinking about it, brushing my teeth and thinking about it, reading my book and thinking about it. It was driving me nuts and making me mad, which is never a good mixture for a decent night's sleep! Anyway, before I went to sleep, I wrote down five things on my gratitude list, breathed deeply and relaxed. As I closed my eyes to go to sleep, I kept focusing on those things I was thankful for until I fell into a deep sleep. I found that this practice helped me get that peaceful sleep I was looking for. Because I was thinking about what I was grateful for, I had no room in my mind for that frustrating situation.

Try it! It takes all of five minutes to write down five things you are thankful for. It can be as simple as being thankful for your home or your family or something more profound. The choice is yours. But practice this on a consistent basis and see how it can help improve so many aspects of your life and your world view!